Yellow Line Champion Deathstorm Build
By Araphorn – Updated for Yondershire, U33

Table of Contents
Introduction
Welcome, here you will find a good build for Yellow Line AoE Champion, tuned for max Area of Effect DPS.
Yellow Champion is easy to get the hang of, as the cooldowns on AoE skills are somewhat long, which gives you lots of flexibility to do other things, such as even doing a little bit of Single-target damage when AoE skills are on cooldown. This adds an interesting element to the spec, and makes for very quick DPS rotations, a blend of AoE and Single-target damage being dished out together. More explained in the rotation section down below.
Yellow Champion is usually not taken into some certain bosses of Raids if there are no AoE requirements, but bosses which do require AoE, a Yellow Champ is always preferred.
Stat Goals
These goals are kept with Essence & Gear planning in mind, as to which Essences are to be prioritized over others. These goals can also be used when picking Virtues.
Critical Rating > Physical Mastery > Tactical Mitigation > Vitality
After Critical Rating and Physical Mastery are capped or near capped, save some room for Class & Trigger essences, and then Tactical Mitigation essences can be used. At the beginning of expansion, Essence slots are really limited, this gets easier as better items become available later down the line.
* Before planning Essences, slot the right Virtues (more on that down below). This way you can plan your setup better, and utilize Essences perfectly, and you can dump the remaining Essence slots in Vitality, Finesse, or other Stat of your choice after meeting Stat goals mentioned above.
Gear
With new Raid released, new gear for Yellow Champions is published in the tables down below. They will use 4-pieces of the Yellow set and 3-pieces of the Red set for additional damage. There are 2 published Builds, one for Endgame and one for Starters.
* Currently, a 2-hander Weapon is performing better, but in the case you prefer a Dual-wield setup, an Off-hand is provided down below.
End-game Build
Armour Pieces
Gear Slot | Set Piece | Location |
---|---|---|
Helm | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
Chest | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
Shoulders | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
Gloves | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
Legs | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
Boots | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
Cloak | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
Off-hand | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
Class Item | Hiddenhoard Raid |
Jewelry Pieces
Gear Slot | Set Piece | Location |
---|---|---|
Earring 1 | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
Earring 2 | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
Necklace | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
Hiddenhoard Raid | ||
Bracelet 1 | Storvagun Winter Festival | |
Bracelet 2 | Storvagun Winter Festival | |
Ring 1 | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
Ring 2 | Hiddenhoard Raid |
Starter Build
The 140 Level Gear from this Build can be acquired by playing the 3 and 6 man instances, higher difficulty will award better loot. Having this gear will allow to progress level capped Raids. As for Essences, you can use the ones you get from Questing or Crafting (whichever Tier is fine), and try to follow the Stat Goals above and Slot the ones which are needed by your Class.
Armour Pieces
Gear Slot | Set Piece | Location |
---|---|---|
Helm | Gundabad 3-Man Instance | |
Chest | Gundabad 6-Man Instance | |
Shoulders | Gundabad 6-Man Instance | |
Gloves | Gundabad 3-Man Instance | |
Legs | Gundabad 3-Man Instance | |
Boots | Gundabad 3-Man Instance | |
Cloak | Gundabad 6-Man Instance | |
Off-hand | Embers Box Barter |
|
Class Item | Embers Box Barter |
Jewelry Pieces
Gear Slot | Set Piece | Location |
---|---|---|
Earring 1 | Gundabad 6-Man Instance | |
Earring 2 | Gundabad 6-Man Instance | |
Necklace | Gundabad 6-Man Instance | |
Gundabad 6-Man Instance | ||
Bracelet 1 | Storvagun Winter Festival | |
Bracelet 2 | Storvagun Winter Festival | |
Ring 1 | Gundabad 6-Man Instance | |
Ring 2 | Gundabad 6-Man Instance |
Essences
Essence Name | Essence | Note |
---|---|---|
Critical Rating | Use these to reach near Critical Rating cap. |
|
Physical Mastery | Use these to reach near Physical Mastery cap. |
|
Class Essence | Use 1 of these. | |
Critical Rating Trigger | Use 1 of these. | |
Physical Mastery Trigger |
Use 1 of these. | |
Critical Heal Trigger | Use 1 of these. | |
Tactical Mitigation | Use these to fill slots after above Essences are met. |
Trait Trees
I use 2 different Trait Trees for Yellow Line, depending on the fight/scenario.
This Tree I use for pretty much all Instances/Raids. This gives me the Max AoE DPS, and great Single-target DPS utility from Red Line.

Next, my second Tree is more for Landscape or power-leveling someone in Warg Pens/Sword Halls, as I trait for Killing Spree, which restores 10% morale on every mob killing blow.

Use these Trees depending on what you are doing.
35 Trait Points Build for Legendary Servers

60 Trait Points Build for Beginners

Virtues
These are the virtues I use to reach the Stat Goals. I use mostly Offensive options, but if need be, some of them can be switched to more Defensive options as well, depending on the type of fight. More explained down below.

Here are the Virtues which go along with the Stat Goals:
- Zeal (Great for Mastery and Critical Rating)
- Valour (Great for Mastery, Finesse and Critical Rating)
- Confidence (Great for Critical Rating and Finesse)
- Wit (Great for Finesse, Mastery and Critical Rating)
- Loyalty (Great for Vitality and survival)
- If you need extra Survivability, swap Wit with Fidelity
If you don’t have these virtues, here are some alternatives:
- Fidelity (Great for Vitality + Tactical Mit)
- Tolerance (Gives great amount of Tactical Mit, decent Physical Mit and Resistance)
- Innocence (Gives great amount of Physical Mit, decent Tactical Mit Mit and Resistance)
Legendary Items
With U30.3, disabled Weapon Swapping in combat and the loss of Crit Multiplier legacy, left Champs in an awkward position. However, they did get a big +30% base damage boost, so they are more or less at the same DPS level they were before the LI revamp.
One thing to note is that 2-Handers weapons are now taking the edge over a Dual-wield setup (even for AoE), as all skills have a much higher tooltip with a 2-Hander equipped, and the Off-hands are way below the DPS rating at the moment. This might change, but for now a 2-Hander Weapon is superior in Yellow-line.
*Note: The way I have setup new Legendary Items is in a way that the Class Item can be shared with Red Line, reducing some resources load. All the general Traceries which are used in both Red and Yellow Line are placed on the Class Item, and Line Specific Traceries are placed on the Weapon.
2-Hander Weapon
Type | Sockets |
---|---|
Heraldic Tracery | Heraldry of the Ox |
Word of Power | Area Effect Attack Criticals |
Word of Power | Area Effect Attack Damage |
Word of Mastery | Brutal Strikes Damage |
Word of Mastery | Exchange of Blows Melee Damage |
Word of Mastery | Ferocious Strikes Damage |
Word of Mastery | Fury of Blades Damage |
Word of Mastery | Great Cleave Duration |
Word of Mastery | Raging Blades Damage |
Word of Craft | Heroic Precision |
Word of Craft | Heroic Precision |
Champion’s Rune (Class Item)
Type | Sockets |
---|---|
Heraldic Tracery | Heraldry of the Ox |
Word of Power | Area Effect Target Count |
Word of Power | Single Target Attack Criticals |
Word of Power | Single Target Attack Damage |
Word of Mastery | Battle Frenzy Cooldown |
Word of Mastery | Blade Wall Damage |
Word of Mastery | Fight On Critical Chance Buff |
Word of Mastery | Horn of Gondor Damage & Mitigation Debuff |
Word of Mastery | Rend Armour Reduction & Bleed Damage |
Word of Mastery | Swift Strike/Blade Damage & Power Cost |
Word of Craft | Heroic Alacrity |
Word of Craft | Heroic Alacrity |
*Note: No Yellow-line specific traceries are used in this Rune (Class Item), thus making this Item usable in Red-line also, if you play both Specs.
Rotation
Here is what I do on Yellow Champ:
- Weapon Swapping in Combat is disabled as of U30.3. So this rotation will consist of using only 1 Weapon.
- Your rotation should always start with these pre-buffs:
- Keep Fervour at max before entering combat.
- Use Controlled Burn.
- Start your rotation with Wild Attack to get your 5% crit chance up. If it doesn’t crit, don’t stop, just keep rotation going, use Wild Attack again soon to get that buff up.
- After WA, use Rend to debuff your target(s) and for an AoE bleed+debuff on all targets.
- Now that your WA buff is up, and your target(s) are debuffed, now it’s time to start using spenders. (If your tank has lined up all the mobs, use buff cooldowns now such as Great Cleave -> True Heroics -> Exchange of Blows.
- Start with Horn of Gondor – Battle Frenzy – Fury of Blades – Swift Blade – Raging Blades-Clobber – Blade Wall. These are your spenders and big hitters.
- When those are on Cooldown, keep Wild Attack crit chance up (It lasts for 10s and it helps if you can track it via a plugin)
- Now that all your AoE skills are on cooldown, and you have refreshed your WA buff, you can do some Single-target hits with Brutal/Fero (only if Blade-wall and all other big AoEs are on cooldown).
- Once that is done, refresh Rend repeat the AoE rotation again (number 6 on the list here)
- Mostly, Yellow Champ is all about keeping all your Spenders (Raging/Fury and Blade Wall as much as possible on cooldown, and managing your buffs simultaneously, this can take some practice but you will eventually get the hang of it. Cut Raging Blades Animation with Clobber always, if the encounter doesn’t require interrupts.
Consumables
There are the consumables I use on Champ:
- Crafted 10s Horn. These are invaluable for Instances/Raids, your group will always ask for these, so keep them with you. (You can only use ones which say ‘Most effective against targets of your level or lower.’)
- Fervour pots. These are great for the instant 5 Fervour and Dev Magnitude for big hits. I typically use them only while I’m heavily buffed or if there is an Oathbreakers on the boss.


This is the Food to use:


Updated as of U33.
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